Stolen from https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/429517-Inferno-of-the-Damned-A-zerger-...


Inferno is getting a huge buff to XP in U20.

Like Shadow Crypt and Sane Asylum, it can be done extremely quickly, or it can be brutal. This guide shows how to do it fast while being fairly easy to remember. I've used this strategy to do six minute completions before, and eleven minute completions in groups where I was the only person that knew the quest.

Required buffs:
- Deathward
- Fire Resist
- Cold Resist
- Haste
- True Seeing (on one person only, speeds up a must-open secret door)
All others are optional. Rage is almost worth the time it takes to cast, Grease is always fun, and there is enough electric damage that electric resist is worth throwing on squishies

Required consumables:
- Some way to cast Fireball and Ice Storm or Cone of Cold. Wands work, or scrolls for Cone. Even wizards should carry these, as the Blitz method skips both shrines to save time.

On killing mobs:
- Other than Mephits, everything you kill in the 'light' side will spawn a ghost version of itself in the 'inferno' side of the maze. As such, long duration incapacitation of mobs is often better than killing them on the light side. That said, killing mobs isn't a terrible thing.
- Mephits should be slaughtered on sight where doing so is efficient, to keep dungeon alert under control. The spell Banishment is the mephit swatter of choice and works acceptably even on divines that aren't DC casting specialists.
- Mass Suggestion works wonders in long-term mob incapacitation.

On the maze:
- Think of the maze as a bicycle wheel with four spokes. The outside is roughly circular. I will refer to locations on the outside by clock points (e.g. due west is 9 o'clock, due north is 12).
- The portals transport you from the 'light' side to the 'inferno'. The game just treats these as 'top' and 'bottom' floors in a two level dungeon.

On traps:
- Traps will two-shot you on Elite and are harmless on lower settings. Generally, if you hug tightly to the side of the wall further from the centre of the maze, you will seldom suffer hits.
- Obviously, if you are self-healing, get out of the trap first, then heal later. If you are capable of throwing big bursts of healing, watch people as they run through traps and be ready for a quickened Heal.
- Deaths happen. When they do, Deathward and cold resist are required before the person engages a Cinderspawn.


The Blitz approach:
Requirements: You need three people that know Inferno backwards and have practiced this guide, and that understand spellpoint management (in a good run, you WILL NOT SHRINE AT ALL). One caster with D-Door is mandatory. Ideally everyone in the group can solo a Cinderspawn or Fire Elemental.

Split into three groups:
- A: D-Door caster. Must have (from SP or UMD) Fireball and Icestorm. This person should know the quest very well.
- B: Someone that can solo a Cinderspawn. Again requires Fireball and Icestorm.
- C: People with some form of run speed boost ideally. One of these must have True Seeing and one must be able to cast Fireball and Icestorm.
- Extra people go wherever they are needed.

Upon entry, throw critical buffs (Deathward, fire/cold to anyone without either a ship buff or 20+ resist on gear, Haste). Everyone travels west (veering south) until you reach a portal at Light 8 o'clock. Destroy it and split up.

A travels south to a portal at Inferno 7 o'clock, destroys the portal there (now at Light 7 o'clock) and continues to Light 6 o'clock. Kill or better yet fascinate or charm everything, then set off a Fireball on the very middle of the four torches. With practice you will light them all with one scroll. Kill the South Flame Guardian, then D-Door out, run west to the portal at Light 8 o'clock, and use it. Retrace the footsteps of group C until you get to Inferno 12 o'clock.

B and C travel north to the site of the West Cinderspawn (not yet active) at Inferno 10 o'clock (dropping down to it), and use the portal located a little to the north. Here they split up. B goes slightly to the south, and engages the West Flame Guardian at Light 10 o'clock. C goes east instead, and will quickly reach a portal at Light 11 o'clock.

B kills the West Flame Guardian, then returns to the nearby portal, uses it, and then goes back south and kills the West Cinderspawn. By this time, A will likely have caught up and can assist in the fight. If A is lagging a bit behind, that's not a problem. Once this is done, A follows in the footsteps of C but stops at the North Cinderspawn room and kills the fire elemental and cinderspawn, then D-doors, and retraces steps to Inferno 12 o'clock. B will do something different.

C use their portal at Light 11 o'clock, and leave the room they are in to the south-east. (Northeast leads to a shrine you are intentionally skipping and that can only be accessed from the light side anyway). They will quickly reach a fork in the road at Inferno 12 o'clock, and head northeast, dropping into the North Cinderspawn's room. Via True Seeing, they uncover the secret door in the room, but they ignore it and push ahead. (A will kill this fire elemental and cinderspawn soon). C leaves the room to the east (there's a little precision jumping required, nothing difficult) and follows the left wall until they reach a portal at Inferno 3 o'clock. (Skip the portal and side path at Inferno 2 o'clock, it's an optional chest that you don't have the prerequisite key for).

Important: C must kill mephits here before using the portal, otherwise dungeon alert will become unmanageable. Banishment works wonders but so does double cleaving with Cloudburst and watching all the vorpal explosions.

C will now be in sight of the East Flame Guardian room. Same deal here, but be aware the additional mobs are quite nasty and numerous. Worgs can and will trip you over and over - it's not a bad idea to swat all of them before engaging the Fire Elemental.

At this point, B will be at Inferno 12 o'clock. B travels south to Inferno Centre, then south to Inferno 6 o'clock and engages the South Cinderspawn. After that, B engages the East Cinderspawn (return to Inferno Centre, then head east to Inferno 3 o'clock).

Hopefully by now, A is back at Inferno 12 o'clock and comes south and helps B. C needs to get from Light 3 o'clock to Inferno Centre to assist, which is done by traveling to Light 5 o'clock, using the portal there, then dropping down to the South Cinderspawn room. (Ignore the far south part, it's just a shrine).


By this point you are ready to engage Cinnis, with most of your group either there, or close by and on their way. Kill him, loot, and enjoy your XP.



Timeline, perspective of A:

0s: Load in
10s: Buffing complete, group runs west
25s: Portal at Light 8 destroyed
50s: Portal at Inferno 7 down
65s: South Flame Guardian engaged
90s: South Flame Guardian destroyed, D-door cast and used
105s: Portal at Light 8 down
120s: In West Cinderspawn room, assist B killing it if needed
160s: In North Flame Guardian room, engage fire ele
190s: In North Cinderspawn room, kill it, D-Door
240s: Back to Inferno 12 o'clock, head south, assist B


Timeline, perspective of B:
25s: Portal at Light 8 destroyed
40s: Portal north of West Cinderspawn destroyed
60s: West Flame Guardian engaged
90s: West Cinderspawn engaged. If you are behind schedule or A is ahead, work together on killing this.
120s: Destroy nearby portal, get to next portal at Light 11 o'clock (wait for A before destroying the portal if A is close)
130s: Destroy portal at Light 11 o'clock. Head to Inferno Centre.
160s: Engage South Cinderspawn
190s: Engage East Cinderspawn if C are on time, otherwise, wait until they are ready. If Cinnis spawns, decide whether or not you can take him yourselves and either engage, or wait.


Timeline, perspective of C:
25s: Portal at Light 8 destroyed
40s: Portal at Inferno 10 destroyed (just north of cinderspawn)
55s: Portal at Light 11 destroyed
70s: Enter North Cinderspawn room (Inferno 1 o'clock), uncover secret door, leave east
90s: Massacre mephits at Inferno 4 o'clock portal, use it when you can
110s: Engage East Flame Guardian
130s: East Flame Guardian and all trash down. Leave south, use portal at Light 5 o'clock
150s: Drop down to South Cinderspawn. Engage if B have not yet done so. Join up with B from here.


There you go. A guide to five minute Inferno blitzing.

Packfan wrote on Oct 31^st, 2013 at 9:25pm:


The dungeon alert gets stupidly weird in here now.  So you're kinda better off just killing everything.

meant rarely do i get a ddoor caster in heroics, it wont let me edit my post.

I always try to put as much points into balance as possible. Does that count?

If you have a halfway decent group you can run it in 6-7 minutes anyways. Having to work up a guide and be all fancy about it shows just how fucking shitty they are at the quest.

Take a piece of paper and draw yourself a fucking map.

This quest is easy solo, and greatly sped up duo. Don't need ABC to complicate it.

Osharan Tregarth wrote on Nov 3^rd, 2013 at 1:51pm:


my only problem with that is then you have a thing stupider than most puggers following you around which is going to cost you 5% even if you put it on passive and invis it.....cause an aoe is prob just gonna one shot it

Osharan Tregarth wrote on Nov 3^rd, 2013 at 3:14pm:


hm true......i still wouldnt put it past a mob to wander along just as the hire's invis wears off and beat him to death while im not paying attention heh.

kierg10 wrote on Nov 3^rd, 2013 at 5:07pm:


Naw.  It's always worked well for my two boxes as well.  I leave em parked at the beginning next to a wall until the quest is done, and then run em through to the end room to pass their sigil pieces over when I needed em.

kum-gulp wrote on Nov 4^th, 2013 at 1:19pm:


lol still 5% xp

Who even needs to ddoor in this quest?  WTF?  It's easy as pie and if you run it right, you end up at the end fight no problem.  There are a handful of quests where DDoor is needed, but this isn't one of them.

whothefuckami wrote on Nov 6^th, 2013 at 7:49pm:


there are people who don't play casters